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| Good morning, early birds. Perth residents are bracing for the hottest day on record, and the ATO will be given bolstered superannuation powers. It’s the news you need to know, with Rachel Withers. This will be the final edition of the Worm for 2019. But fear not! You still get to enjoy one more week of The Daily, Weekender and Side View. And the Worm will, of course, be back in 2020. Until then, have a safe and happy Christmas and New Year, early birds. | |||||||||||||
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50.7 DEGREESAustralia could this week experience the hottest day on record, with Perth preparing to endure an unprecedented heatwave, the ABC reports. Perth city is expected to hover around the 40-degree mark for four consecutive days, but the Bureau of Meteorology says it wouldn’t be surprising if Australia’s highest recorded temperature of 50.7 degrees is broken. Perth set its hottest day record last year, at 41.6 degrees, but to date, the city has never had two days in December over 40 degrees. As a cool change moves in at the start of next week, the heat will travel interstate. | |||||||||||||
SHOW ME THE MONEYThe Morrison government will implement new rules ($) requiring big superannuation funds to hand over lost super to the Australian Taxation Office, The Australian reports. As it stands, super funds have been able to shift funds from inactive accounts into a related fund, despite recently introduced legislation that empowers the ATO to retrieve lost super. The Australian estimates money from more than half-a-million workers has been transferred to an ‘eligible rollover fund’ and charged fees. The new policy will require funds from inactive accounts (that is, accounts that haven’t received any contribution for 16 months) to be handed over to the ATO by June 2021. | |||||||||||||
NEW DISCOVERIESA team of Australian and Indonesian researchers believe cave paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is the earliest known pictorial record of storytelling. The paintings were uncovered back in 2017 and dated to nearly 44,000 years ago, out-dating 40,000-year-old rock art previously found in an ivory cave in Germany. In an article published in Nature journal, Adam Brumm said the paintings also show some of the earliest evidence of human spirituality. “The portrayal of multiple hunters confronting at least two separate prey species possibly suggests a game drive — a communal hunt in which animals are indiscriminately flushed from cover and directed towards waiting hunters,” the researchers said. | |||||||||||||
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
The US President congratulates climate activist Greta Thunberg on becoming TIME’s Person of the Year in his own unique way. | |||||||||||||
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CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY | |||||||||||||
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THE COMMENTARIATAustralia can’t afford to underfund mental health ($) – Patrick McGorry (The Australian): “Mental illness is the major cause of premature death in young people up to the age of 40, and across the lifespan the largest contributor to disability and productivity loss. Yet, despite two decades of awareness campaigns, countless reviews and plans, our approach to mental healthcare has been mostly ad hoc and fragmented. The disconnect between unprecedented awareness and the poor access and quality of care actually provided must be overcome with reform and investment. For this to succeed, hard-won scientific evidence must form the bedrock of a modern mental health system, as it is in physical healthcare. And we must invest in mental health research and innovation.” Contrite Westpac board deserves no credit for surviving torrid meeting – Elizabeth Knight (The Sydney Morning Herald): “A significant portion of those voting against [Westpac’s] remuneration report were projecting their anger and disappointment at the lack of governance and the board’s failure to understand or appreciate the importance of laws around anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. Banks are supposed to understand risk – financial and non-financial. It is at the heart of what they do, and Westpac failed miserably. At an emotional level shareholders were appalled that the bank, in which they are part owners, could have potentially enabled child sexual exploitation.” Matt Kean and Gladys Berejiklian must explain how 35pc emissions reduction plan will work ($) – Anna Caldwell (The Daily Telegraph): “While Kean has previously declared his support for coal, neither he nor the Premier took steps yesterday to explain how coal and coal jobs would be protected in the face of this new target. It all echoes Bill Shorten’s details-phobic federal election campaign. And now, in many ways, the Berejiklian government appears to be making the same mistakes in office. What will be the cost to the economy of a 35 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030? How will it be achieved? How will they ensure the security of coal jobs and mining towns? If the government wants to set lofty targets it must be prepared to explain them to the electorate.” | |||||||||||||
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